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—  ^    i\  n\ 


*    APR  18  1911 


AN    ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE 


The  Literary  Societies 


COLLEGE  OF  NEW  JERSEY, 


REV.  MELANCTHON  W.  JACOBUS,  D.D.,  LLD. 


Tuesday,  June  22,   1874. 


PRINCETON : 
Printed    bv    C.    S.    Robixso.v, 

1874. 


EXTRACT    FROM    THE    MINUTES    OF    THE 
CLIOSOPHIC  SOCIETY. 

Clio  Hall,  June  23d,  1874. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  be  presented  to  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Jacobus,  for  his  eloquent  and  timely  address  delivered  this  morning 
before  the  Literary  Societies  of  the  College,  and  that  a  copy  of  the  same 
be  requested  for  publication. 

WILLIAM  A.   PACKARD, 

JOHN  T.  DUFFIELD, 

WM.  SANDERSON  CHEESMAN. 


EXTRACT  FROM  THE  MINUTES  OF  THE 
AMERICAN  WHIG  SOCIETY. 

Whig  Hall,  June  23d,  1S74. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  American  Whig  Society  be  pre 
sented  to  the  Rev.  Melancthon  W.  Jacobus,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  for  his  able  and 
eloquent  address,  delivered  to-day,  and  that  a  copy  be  requested  for  pub- 
lication. 

HENRY  C.  CAMERON, 
CHARLES  W.  SHIELDS, 
DUDLEY  G,  WOOTEN. 


JLIDIDIE^ESS 


Gentlemen  of  thk  American  Whkj  and  Ci.k;- 
soPHic  Societies. 

I  am  carried  back  just  forty  years,  to  the  time 
when  I  stood  here,  a  lad  among  my  seniors,  and  was 
graduated  with  my  Class  of  '34.  Carnahan,  in  his 
quiet  dignity  and  worth,  was  Pfesident^and  there 
was  the  brilliant  Dod,  and  the  learned  Torrey.  and 
the  scholarly  Vethake,  and  the  accomplished  and  ele- 
gant Jas.  W.  Alexander,  and  the  masterly  and  magnetic 
Joseph  Henry,  and  the  erudite  Stephen  Alexander, 
who  still  adorns  his  chair,  and  the  venerable  and 
beloved  Vice  President,  John  Maclean,  who  is  also 
among  us  to-day.  the  venerated  and  honored  Ex- 
President  of  the  Institution.   "O  King!  live  for  ever." 

The  Old  North  College,  prison-like  as  it  was 
before  its  ordeal  of  flame,  and  as  it  is  to-day,  graced 
the  Campus,  flanked  by  the  Library  and  the  Philo- 
sophical  Hall,  with   Mr.  Clow's    Refectory,  and  with 


the  mansions  of  President  and  Vice  President  afront, 
right  and  left.  East  and  West  Colleges  were  pro- 
jected in  that  time,  and  the  Clio  and  Whig  Halls 
were  set  on  foot  by  one  of  my  own  class  lately 
deceased,  the  Rev.  Daniel  Wells.  As  yet  these 
Societies  were  domiciled  in  the  sky-story  of  the 
Library,  meeting  on  different  nights  to  avoid  cross- 
ing each  other's  path. 

The  patriotism  of  the  College  annually  shone  out 
on  Independence  nightwith  a  candle  in  every  window- 
pane  of  the  Old  North  front,  and  with  turpentine 
balls  and  rockets  set  flying  through  the  grounds. 
May  I  say  that  her  patriotism  displays  itself  in  a 
higher  kind  of  illumination — a  light  in  every  window- 
pane  indeed,  but  the  light  of  living  men  scattered 
widely  throughout  the  land  and  in  all  lands. 

To-day  we  come  up  hither  to  behold  what  revo- 
lution has  been  wrought  here  by  the  quiet  energy  of 
taste  and  money.  Honor  to  the  men  who  have  so 
nobly  set  their  hand  to  this  long  needed  work.  The 
Gymnasium,  the  Observatory,  the  Reunion  Hall,  the 
Chapel,  Dickinson  Hall,  the  New  Library  and  the 
Scientific  Hall  !  Honor  to  the  man  who  with  such 
princely  munificence  has  undertaken  these  last  three 
imposing  structures  together.  And  honor  to  him, 
who,  not  unmindful  of  the  higher  culture,  as  befits 


this  College,  proposes  a  new  and  elegant  Chapel,  to 
be  the  Sanctuary  of  this  Institution. 

You  can  see  the  bulk  of  a  full  million  of  money 
in  these  improvements  of  the  College.  Honor  to 
the  College  Head  who  has  so  wisely  planned  and 
executed  the  work  allowed  to  him  by  these  munifi- 
cent appropriations.  And  we  bless  God  that  men 
of  ample  wealth  and  of  liberal  conception — the  mer- 
chant princes  of  our  land — are  finding  out  the  grand- 
est ends  of  money — the  most  truly  useful,  the  most 
richly  profitable  and  the  most  really  lasting — build- 
ing to  themselves  monuments  in  these  enduring  edi- 
fices they  erect,  in  the  large  endowments  which  they 
institute,  and  what  is  more  and  better,  in  the  grati- 
tude of  lonof  orenerations. 

Who  could  have  thought  that  it  would  be  left  to 
a  German  merchant  of  our  day,  by  wealth  acquired  in 
commercial  industries,  and  by  the  inspiration  of  a 
zeal  for  Greek  learning,  to  unbury  the  ruins  of  ancient 
Troy,  four  cities  deep — himself  drinking  in  a  new 
life,  where 

"  The  Attic  bird 
Trills  her  sweet  warblings  all  the  Summer  long." 

As  Athens  and  Corinth  were  the  eyes  of  Greece — 
as  Oxford  and  Cambridge  are  the  eyes  of  England — 
as  Yale  and  Harvard  are  the  eyes  of  New  England 
— so  Princeton  is  set  in  the  forehead  of  our  Middle 
States  to  be  one  of  the  eyes  of  America. 


8 

Here  are  all  the  elements  of  permanence  and  of 
prosperity  and  of  power.  With  such  a  record, 
wrought  in  the  rock  of  her  hard  pathway,  with  such 
k  proud  list  of  her  sons  adorning  our  country's  his- 
tory, with  such  a  prestige  in  the  well  earned  confidence 
of  the  people,  where  can  large  wealth  be  better 
expended  than  in  adding  to  her  facilities  for  educat- 
ing the  young  men  of  our  land?  Treasure  of  New 
England  merchants  and  of  Alumni  and  patrons  in 
all  quarters,  has  rained  down  upon  Harvard  and 
Yale.  And  they  have  steadily  multiplied  their  edu- 
cational appliances  under  such  public  favor.  Enlarged 
Faculties,  enriched  Libraries  and  Museums,  extended 
schemes  of  Instruction  bv  Professors  and  Tutors  in 
every  department,  this  is  their  glory  !  And  we  claim 
for  our  Alma  Mater  all  that  generous  and  ample 
patronage  which  shall  make  her,  as  she  of  right  ought 
to  be,  the  first  Educational  Institution  in  the  land. 
Princeton  needs  to-day  the  enlarged  means  for  aid- 
ing her  advanced  students  in  pursuing  their  favorite 
branches  at  home  and  abroad,  under  her  endowed 
fellowships  and  scholarships — as  the  means  also  of 
supplying  the  land  with  scholars  and  teachers  who 
shall  well  maintain  the  honor  of  their  order.  This 
should  be  a  seat  of  learning  for  pilgrim  scholars  to 
frequent  with  their  devotions.  But  the  rush  of  busi- 
ness, the   Battering   bait   of  wealth,  the   pressure  of 


poverty,  all  make  high  learning  almost  impossible  in 
a  land  like  ours,  unless  learned  livings  be  provided. 
And  these  could  be  so  adjusted  as  to  engage 
the  advancing  fellow  or  scholar,  all  along,  as 
an  instructor  also,  so  that  all  the  talent  and 
acquirement  could  be  well  utilized  as  fast  as 
it  is  obtained.  Our  CoUecje  needs  her  course 
to  be  extended,  so  as  to  be  fully  abreast  of 
the  foremost,  with  all  the  advanced  appointments 
of  our  time.  She  needs  the  money  always  to  com- 
mand the  highest  grade  of  teaching,  and  to  hold  it 
in  a  way  that  shall  not  be  a  shame  to  think  of,  as  a 
fair  compensation.  She  needs  enrichment  ot  her 
laboratories  and  museums,  and  of  her  philosophic 
and  scientific  apparatus.  And  men  of  wealth  might 
covet  the  privilege  of  cultivating  such  a  field  with 
such  a  noble  and  generous  soil. 

This  grand  old  College  of  New  Jersey,  with  no 
pittance  of  appropriation  from  the  State  whose  name 
she  bears  and  honors,  and  whom  she  supplies  with  her 
men  of  might — with  no  portion  even  of  the  agricultu- 
ral grant — must  look  to  her  sons,  and  to  her  patrons 
whom  she  reckons  with  her  sons. 

The  State,  in  this  age  of  our  commonwealth, 
cannot  be  relied  upon  for  the  higher  education. 
Her  philosophy  is  the  productive  philosophy.  She 
will    amply  provide    for    her    Public  Schools.     She 


lO 

will  even  make  the  District  School  House  her 
Parish  Church,  and  instead  of  making-  education 
relioioiis,  will  make  education  her  relio^ion.  She 
may  even  endow  her  colleges  and  universities. 
But  too  often  it  must  be  upon  conditions  which  would 
not  be  safe  for  the  culture  of  the  land.  And  here 
are  great  principles  of  vast  importance  at  stake, 
which  cannot  by  any  means  be  yielded. 

The  State  proceeds  too  commonly  upon  the  theory 
that  education,  in  its  narrow,  secular,  practical,  mate- 
rialistic sense,  works  out  the  conservation  of  the 
commonwealth.  But  there  is  an  education  which 
only  makes  more  potent  and  damaging  the  evil  spirit 
of  its  possessor.  And  the  mere  outside  training  and 
furniture  which  supplies  with  a  popular  personal 
power  to  sway  the  masses  and  to  wield  the  govern- 
ment for  evil  as  well  as  for  good,  carries  with  it,  and 
in  itself,  no  salvation  for  the  country.  We  plead  for 
education,  and  for  education  by  the  State.  But  we 
would  not  stop  at  such  an  education  as  the  State  will 
give  us.  This  nation,  more  than  any  other,  is  depend- 
ent for  her  very  life  upon  the  well-diffused  intelli- 
gence of  the  people  in  secular  affairs.  But  the 
higher  education  must  also  be  provided  that  shall 
give  a  full  and  complete  training  to  the  man  in  the 
whole  circle  of  knowledges  :  in  the  humanities  and 
the  realities  together,  in  mind,  body,  soul,  and  estate  : 


1 1 

that  shall  make  him  better  know  himself,  and  better 
understand  human  character,  and  history,  and  destiny 
— that  shall  teach  him  what  man  is,  and  what  man  has 
been,  and  has  done,  and  what  he  may  become,  and  what 
all  nature  is,  as  an  exhibition  of  her  Maker.  "  Literae, 
Amicitia,  Mores."  Shall  I  say  then,  by  way  of  a 
passing-  plea  for  our  noble  College  so  well  equipped, 
that  she  needs  a  still  better  and  fuller  equipment, 
that  the  million  or  more  so  lately  given  and  so  well 
expended,  calls  for  millions  more  in  a  course  of  solid 
culture,  that  shall  well  repay  with  ampler  millions  in 
the  generations  to  come. 

Gentlemen  oj  the  Societies  : 

Standing  here  to-day  where  the  Temple  of 
Science  and  the  Temple  of  Religion  are  provided 
for  together  by  the  munificence  of  noble  men,  I 
may  fairly  speak  to  you  of  The  Higher  EnucATioN. 

"  The  Scientific  Hall,"  with  grand  proportions, 
walled  and  roofed — a  massive  pile — unfinisheci  but 
steadily  approaching  to  completion,  this  is  the  fitting 
type  and  exponent  of  our  College  to-day.  But 
science,  in  its  true  idea,  is  systematized  knowledge, 
knowledge  in  its  utmost  breadth,  not  narrow  and 
partial  knowledge,  but  universal.  For  science  is  not 
physical  science  merely,  but  metaphysical  and  moral 
and  theolooical  also:  not  the  knowledo-e  of  matter 
only,  but  the  knowledge  of  niind  and  soul  also  as 


I  2 


essential  to  the  personality,  and  of  mind  and  soul  as 
not  matter,  but  immensely  superior  to  matter. 

The  subtle  materialism  which  pervades  so  much 
the  thinking  of  our  time,  touches  at  various 
points,  the  great  problems  of  education,  narrows  the 
sphere  of  knowledge  and  threatens  already  a  sub- 
version of  the  old  educational  system. 

This  is  true  as  respects  both  the  subject  and  the 
object  of  education. 

I.  For  who  is  to  be  educated  ?  What  is  he  ? 
If  he  be  only  material  and  not  spiritual  also,  only 
body  and  not  soul — then  why  is  not  a  first  class  Gym- 
nasium the  proper  and  sufficient  appliance  ?  Then 
it  is  muscle  that  is  to  be  educated.  It  is  the  cultiva- 
tion of  tissue  and  fibre,  which,  in  this  view,  are  not 
merely  the  organ  of  mind  but  the  mind  itself  Then 
indeed,  there  is  the  prime  absurdity  of  denying  one's 
proper  personality  in  order  to  draw  out  and  elevate 
his  personal  traits  which  distinguish  him  from  any 
other  man.  Then,  indeed,  it  is  tenement  and  not  ten- 
ant which  is  to  be  informed.  It  is  shell  and  not  kernel 
which  is  to  be  made  to  grow.  Then,  as  one  has  said, 
there  is  the  phenomenon  of  "soulless  professors 
lecturing  to  soulless  students,  to  prove  that  they 
have  no  souls,  by  arguments  which  are  only  noisy 
breath  unless  they  have  souls  toapprehend  and  appre- 
ciate the  arguments." 


13 

And  if,  as  this  thinking  maintains,  the  man  is 
only  a  superior  brute,  with  the  spirit  of  the  brute 
that  goeth  downward,  what  need  we  for  a  college 
but  a  well-appointed  Menagerie,  arranged  according 
to  the  respective  habitats,  and  fitted  up  with  its 
adaptation  to  the  instincts  of  each  ? 

Or  if,  as  some  will  have  it,  the  man  is  only  what 
he  eats — determined  in  all  his  mental  and  moral 
characteristics  by  the  food  he  masticates,  then  surely 
we  are  to  institute  the  modern  curriculum  on  the 
basis  of  a  first-class  Restaurant,  where  the  education 
shall  be  by  means  of  the  diets,  selected  and  gradu- 
ated to  produce  certain  aptitudes  and  faculties  for 
success  in  the  several  pursuits.  And  the  philosophic 
faculty  is  to  be  made  by  one  bill  of  fare,  and  the 
artistic  faculty  by  another,  and  the  industrial  faculty 
by  another,  and  the  course  of  food  is  the  curriculum, 
one  course  to  produce  the  soldier  and  another  the 
scholar,  one  the  savant  and  the  other  the  servant. 

And  this  leads  me  to  advert,  in  passing,  to  a 
kindred  error  in  the  modern  education  that  mistakes 
cram  for  culture — that  drives  the  machine  by  such 
high  pressure  and  at  so  many  miles  an  hour  as 
jeopards  everything  on  board.  This  is  truly  mater- 
ialistic. It  is  not  education  in  any  proper  sense.  It 
is  stuffing,  not  drawing  out  the  man.  It  surfeits  him 
so   as  to  make  the  study  a  disgust,  until   the   intel- 


Ijctual  clysptiptic  rejects  liis  proper  food.  It  makes 
the  curriculum  a  race-course  and  never  is  done  with 
the  lash  and  the  spur  until  the  end  is  reached.  The 
student  may  be  driven  mad  by  such  a  process,  or  he 
may  be  overtasked  to  his  death.  Or  at  best  he  will 
long  to  get  out  of  the  strait-jacket  and  prison  life 
of  the  college,  with  its  ding\  dong,  bell,  and  go  to  the 
polytechnic  or  university  to  pursue  his  favorite 
branches  at  his  will. 

But  I  proceed  to  maintain  that  "scientific  theories 
of  matter  and  of  life,  all  have  ethical  relations  and  con- 
sequences. These  are  assumed  in  politics  and  law, 
in  the  sciences  of  natural  rioht  and  of  social  obliea- 
tion.  And  any  community  must  soon  feel  that 
literary  institution  to  be  a  positive  scourge,  in  which 
a  sceptical  science  relaxes  (if  it  does  not  deny)  all 
the  moral  obligations  which  spring  from  a  true 
faith."  I  see  in  the  drift  of  modern  thought  perils 
imminent  to  our  educational  systems.  Ihe  subtle 
poison  is  in  the  atmosphere.  It  is  breathed  in  the 
magazine,  in  the  lecture,  in  the  newspapers.  The 
revolution  is  actually  going  on.  And  these  perils 
can  be  best  provided  against  by  enriching  and 
stren<rthenine  such  a  colleofe  as  this.  We  maintain 
the  catholicity  and  authority  of  science.  //  is  not 
the  believer  who  cripples  and  restricts  scientijic 
research.     It  is  the  unbeliever  ivho  co?tfiJics   it  to  the 


15 

narr invest  spheres  of  sense  and  grovels  along  with  it 
there.  And  as  the  President  of  Yale  has  well 
said  "  the  present  aspects  of  society  at  home  and 
abroad  are  compelling  thoughtful  men  to  ask, 
whether  the  practical  relaxing  of  the  bonds  of  duty 
amone  men  of  culture  and  education  is  not  the  result 
of  a  more  or  less  distinctly  acknowledged  theoretical 
scepticism."  Plain  enough  is  it  that  the  sceptical 
scientist  who  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  a  personal, 
primal  cause  in  Nature,  cannot  teach  a  true  science. 

Look  at  the  new  programme  of  scientific  educa- 
tion as  already  announced. 

"  The  connection  of  man  with  the  lower  animals 
shall  form  the  basis  of  a  new  system  of  psychology. 
Mental  science  will  start  on  a  new  track  in  search  of 
other  objects  than  our  metaphysicians  have  hitherto 
kept  in  view.  Psychology  will  be  based  on  a  new 
foundation,  that  of  the  necessary  acquirement  of 
each  mental  power  and  capacity  by  gradation.  Light 
will  be  thrown  upon  the  origin  of  man  and  his  his- 
tory. And  here  is  a  theory  involving  a  complete 
overthrow  of  a  system  of  mental  science  in  which 
mind  is  regarded  as  a  substance  distinct  from  the 
body."      Can  anv  education  be  lower  than  this? 

I  have  stoodon  the  topof  the  Righi  whenfar  below 
on  the  beautiful  Lake  Lucerne,  the  cloud  had  settled 
like   a    roof  over   a    portion  of  the  waters,  and  you 


1 6 

could  see  the  tiny  steamer  ploutrhing  its  way  to  where 
it  entered  under  the  cloud,  the  passengers  shrinking 
at  the  chill  and  darkness,  and  not  at  all  considerino- 
the  higher  realm  of  thought  and  observation  above 
them.  So  I  have  seen  a  child  trying  to  pick  up  a 
patch  of  sunshine  from  the  carpet.  It  was  there. 
But  it  did  not  belong  to  the  things  which  may  be 
handled. 

Such  a  theory  of  knowledge  as  we  have  referred 
to,  confounds  the  distinctions  of  thought,  and  utterly 
bewilders  all  investigation.  Not  satisfied  with  dis- 
carding traditional  assumptions,  it  demands  mathe- 
matical proof  of  that  which  is  not  at  all  subject  to 
such  analysis.  As  if  one  should  require  of  his  son 
to  prove  his  filial  temper  by  the  algebra — to  take  the 
square  root  of  an  affection — to  work  out  his  demon- 
strations of  fidelity  upon  the  blackboard,  and  to  dif- 
ferentiate the  right  and  wrong  of  his  conduct  by 
the  calculus. 

Wecall  for  more  of  science,  notforless.  Weprotest 
aoainst  narrowincr  die  circle  of  the  sciences  so  as  to 
exclude  the  higher  realms  of  thought.  VVe  plead 
for  science  in  its  widest  sphere,  beyond  the  mere 
material  phenomena,  for  science  above  the  analysis 
of  the  laboratory,  or  the  scope  of  the  anatomist. 
Has  it  come  to  this,  that  brain  work  is  to  be  measured 
by  the  inch,  according  to  the  correlation  of  physical 


17 

forces  ?  Shall  we  have  its  value  then  computed  by 
the  yard,  or  shall  we  have  its  horse-power  calculated, 
for  driving  an  eno^ine,  or  o^overnincr  a  state?  That 
education  must  be  halfway  and  one-sided  that  so 
dwarfs  and  belittles  science  as  to  confine  it  to  sensi- 
ble objects.  That  is  indeed,  sensation  without  reflec- 
tion.     Here,  "  science  "  pleads  for  ignorance. 

Take  the  scientific  methods,  as  applied,  for 
example,  to  the  worlds  beyond  our  reach.  You 
have  the  spectroscope,  and  you  credit  that  wonderful 
instrument,  as  it  reveals  to  you,  by  the  colored  lines 
which  their  atmospheres  cast  upon  the  canvas,  what 
are  the  materials  out  of  which  those  starry  orbs  are 
built.  And  here  are  the  lines  of  YiQ-ht,  which  are 
cast  by  the  atmosphere  of  that  spirit-world  upon  the 
inspired  page,  and  which  reveal  to  our  conscious- 
ness its  very  constituent  elements.  There  w'as  a  time 
when  nothing  but  driftwood  floatino-  on  the  ocean 
currents  indicated  to  men  the  existence  of  this  con- 
tinent as  a  possible  or  probable  fact.  ^And  then  a  dar- 
ing navigator  carried  back  the  testimony  oi  it  as 
something  seen  by  himself,  and  this  w^as  credited. 
And  such  testimonies  and  proofs  we  have  had  of  a 
world  beyond  the  stars  belonging  to  our  spiritual 
system.  And  why  should  they  not  in  like  manner 
constrain  our  belief?  I  have  stood  in  the  old  Cathe- 
dral at  Pisa,  under  the  chandelier  where  Galileo  gazed 


i8 

and  where  he  discovered  the  proof  of  the  earth's 
motion.  And  I  have  thoug"ht  how  strikingly  typical 
it  was.  that  in  the  apex  of  that  sanctuary  nave,  high 
arching  towards  the  sky,  there  was  fixed  the  strong 
staple  from  which  that  grand  demonstration  was 
hung.  So  much  for  the  experimental  method.  And 
is  experiment  more  than  experience  ? 

And  now  if  we  apply  the  favorite  historical  method 
of  the  modern  school  what  have  we  ?  We  have  the 
documents  in  the  most  ancient  and  corroborative 
form,  of  manifold  record,  which  give  us  the  history  of 
the  supernatural  along  with  the  common  items  of  the 
day.  And  these  histories  belonging  to  the  most  en- 
lightened age,  and  current  in  the  most  learned  commu- 
nities of  Greek  and  Roman  culture,  attested  by  let- 
ters to  the  chief  cities  of  the  world  and  with  every 
element  of  authentication.  Why  should  the  histori- 
cal method,  so  vaunted,  be  ruled  out  here,  and  only 
here  ?  as  if  history  could  be  voted  unhistorical,  and 
turned  to  fable,  at  will.  Science  calculates  transits 
and  eclipses,  and  properly  glorifies  her  methods  of 
positive  knowledge  from  data  of  natural  law.  But 
here  we  have  the  very  time-tables  according  to  which 
the  years  of  history  have  been  kept  from  the  begin- 
ningf,  and  have  been  noted  centuries  beforehand,  with 
unerring  accuracy.  And  now  to  deny  the  document, 
or  to  question  the  date  because  of  the  data,  would 


19 

be  quite  as  disingenuous  as  it  would  be  to  challenge 
the  scholars  who  have  gone  out  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  to  watch  the  transit  of  Venus. 

For  truth,  shining  out  upon  us  from  the  sky  belongs 
to  no  age,  nation  or  language  exclusively,  but  to  all 
alike.  All  tongues  and  peoples  owe  it  equal  hom- 
age, and  are  bound  to  plant  themselves  where  they 
can  best  find  it  out. 

Proctor  says,  "What  if  our  eyes  were  telescopes  ! " 
Yes  !  What  if  they  were  such  telescopes  as  "  sub- 
stantiate the  things  hoped  for,  and  evidence  the  things 
not  seen," 

And  here  is  the  Book,  which  is  unlike  any  other 
book — so  confessedly  above  them  all — unaccounta- 
ble altogether  except  upon  the  supposition  of  its 
higher  origin  and  substance — dealing  with  science 
long  before  science  was  born — so  anticipating  the 
findings  of  science  without  an  error,  long  a^res  before 
science  began,  as  to  prove  that  it  was  the  product 
of  His  mind  who  gave  to  science  birth  ;  the  Book 
which  gives  the  history  of  all  history — the  only 
orieinal  account  of  all  orioins — the  table  of  the 
races  and  the  order  and  genesis  of  populations,  and 
the  birth  and  growth  of  languages — the  Book  from 
which  the  greatest  authors  of  all  ages  have  drawn 
their  inspirations — which  has  furnished  subjects  to 
the  highest  art — which  has  been  more  criticised  and 


20 


searched  into  than  all  other  books  tog-ether — its  jots 
and  tittles,  its  sentences  and  syllables  counted 
and  memorized  until  it  could  be  reproduced  from 
the  books  and  brains  of  its  adherents  if  every  copy 
of  it  were  given  to  the  flames — which  has  been  per- 
secuted as  if  it  had  been  an  invading  army  of  sav- 
ages, but  which  will  not  down  at  any  word  of 
authority  and  power.  You  are  asked  to  pronounce 
this  Book  a  fable,  and  the  Religion  which  it  reveals, 
a  fallacy  and  falsity.  But  the  name  it  heralds  to  the 
world  is  to-day  the  Name  above  every  name. 

And  here  I  would  put  in  a  plea  for  the  study  of 
this  earliest  and  noblest  classic,  as  being  itself  the 
fountain  of  learning — as  having  all  science  and  all 
philosophy  and  all  literature  here  in  the  germ.  I 
would  have  it  studied  in  both  of  its  wonderful  lan- 
guages as  part  of  the  college  curriculum.  Books 
more  stirrintr  than  Homer,  more  touching  than  the 
Medea,  more  lovely  than  Virgil  are  here. 

But  as  there  can  be  no  true  culture,  without  a  true 
cultus,  a  true  ideal  and  object  of  worship,  what 
must  come  of  a  culture  that  worships  a  blind 
and  unintelligent  force  ?  Can  we  be  educated 
by  the  new  system,  to  love  a  set  of  forces  ? 
a  set  of  galvanic  forces,  a  set  of  vital  forces? 
The  ancient  heathenism  that  worshipped  the  powers 
of  nature,  at  least  personified  them.     It  was  the  Sun- 


21 

God.  It  was  the  spirit  under  the  leaf,  and  in  the 
flower,  and  in  the  stalk  of  grain.  And  yet  that  cul- 
ture so  defective,  upwards,  was  bondage  and  dark 
night  upon  the  soul  and  upon  all  their  social  institu- 
tions. It  was  when  Greece  and  Rome  had  a  culture 
that  struggled  towards  a  divine  Personality  which 
they  could  freely  invoke,  that  there  came  forth  what- 
ever was  admirable  in  the  higher  classic  culture. 

I  have  walked  through  Plato's  Grove  of  Acade- 
mus,  and  have  plucked  the  solitary  orange  blossom 
from  the  deserted  field,  and  I  have  thought  how  the 
great  teacher  has  been  superseded  by  the  greater, 
and  how  the  (fc'Aoao(f:a  has  given  way  to  the  aotfca^  the 
/.oyu^,  the  0£av6(io)7:o:;. 

And  ask  a  moment,  if  you  will  have  aw,  what  is 
the  inevitable  law  of  such  a  belief  or  nonbelief 
worked  out  in  the  popular  education  ?  It  is  a  law 
of  moral  gravitation  issuing  in  all  debasement  and 
despair.  Rejecting  a  Divine  Personality  and  with 
it  all  personal  accountability,  every  man  a  law  to 
himself,  no  binding-  obligations,  no  fear  of  retribution 
in  the  future  world,  no  sanctity  of  an  oath,  no  moral 
forces  left,  justice  a  farce,  and  not  a  force,  the  world 
is  chaos.  Positivism  becomes  blank  negativism. 
The  spirit  of  the  age  becomes  utter  lawlessness. 
To  command  it  by  law,  must  then  be 


22 

"  As  bootless. 

As  to  send  precepts  to  Leviathan 
To  come  ashore." 

But  this  modern  thought  that  will  repudiate  most 
ot  all  any  Supreme  Personality,  offers  to  our  modern 
civilization  a  worse  than  heathen  development. 
Savage  barbarism  in  society  is  the  sure  result.  Not 
even  the  Great  Spirit  of  the  Indian  becomes  a 
restraint  upon  the  evil  passions  of  men.  Give  us 
back  the  Pantheon  and  the  Parthenon,  orods  and 
goddesses  without  number,  rather  than  none,  rather 
than  this  negation  of  all  cultus  and  true  culture 
together. 

Stop  a  moment,  and  ask  what  culture  this  mod- 
ern thought  has  produced.  What  poem  has  it  writ- 
ten ?  What  world-renowned  masterpiece  of  art  has 
it  brought  forth  ?  What  Handel  or  Beethoven  has 
it  produced  in  music  ?  What  Angelo  with  easel  or 
chisel  ?  What  idol  even,  has  it  cast  like  the  Athen- 
ian Pallas,  for  its  worship  ?  A  statue  of  Minerva, 
indeed,  but  overtopping  it,  and  as  the  only  object  to 
be  seen  from  afar,  the  golden  tip  of  her  spear. 

II.  But  this  materialism  in  the  modern  thouo;ht, 
shows  itself  also,  in  limiting  the  object  of  education  ; 
in  demanding  that  the  culture  shall  be  such  only  as 
shall  directly  subserve  the  material  interests.  The 
true  end  of  education  is  not  what  the  man  shall  most 
do,butwhatheshallmostbe,  and  this  too,  in  order  that 


23 

he  may  most  and  best  do  the  part  assigned  to  him.  It 
is  character  more  than  calHno-.  Character  first  and 
calhng  next.  Not  to  get  tools,  so  much  as  to  become 
himself  the  superior  instrument  or  agent  for  all  the 
work  of  life.  In  an  age  like  ours,  and  especially  in 
a  land  like  ours,  where  material  values  are  the  high 
prizes  of  life  to  the  multitude,  it  is  no  marvel  if  old 
barriers  should  be  broken  down  in  our  educational 
systems.  It  is  seen  that  the  practical  talent  is  that 
which  succeeds;  that  mere  scholarship,  however  prized 
by  the  possessor,  does  not  win  the  chief  prizes  of 
our  day.  It  is  even  said  that  high  learning  is  often 
positively  in  the  way  of  one's  success  in  life;  may  so 
smooth  and  polish  a  man  as  to  make  him  a  poor 
wrestler  for  promotion  in  every  day  affairs.  It  is 
even  asserted,  and  is  true  in  a  sense,  that  "the  great- 
est men  in  the  world  have  not  been  the  elegant  and 
refined  scholars  of  their  time — that  Brindley  and 
Stephenson,  for  example,  the  men  who  gave  to 
Britain  her  canals  and  railways,  did  not  read  and 
write  till  they  were  twenty  years  of  age."  But  surely 
this  is  no  argument  for  postponing  one's  elementary 
learning  till  his  majority.  It  is  said  also  that 
"D'Israeli,  with  all  his  literary  resources,  never  laid 
down  a  line  of  state  policy  that  was  not  scouted,  while 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  whose  speeches  were  the  heaviest 
platitudes  and  whose  quotations  were  commonly  from 


24 

the  Eton  grammar,  reversed  his  country's  financial 
poHcy,  regenerated  Ireland,  and  died  with  the  blessing 
of  all  England  on  his  head."  But  what  does  this  prove 
against  the  most  liberal  culture  for  a  man  as  part  of 
his  training  in  life  ?  D'Israeli's  learning  did  not 
come  out  of  the  University.  And  those  uncultured 
magnates  would  have  achieved  much  more,  with  all 
the  accessories  of  educated  power.  And  unless  the 
learned  failures  are  traceable  to  the  learning,  then 
nothing  is  proved  except  that  only  iheir  exalted 
scholarship  saved  them  from  being  failures  altogether. 
It  has  been  charged  that  the  high  education 
"  ritles  the  cannon  until  the  strength  of  the  metal  is 
gone."  But  if  the  metal  was  of  poor  stuff,  or  lack- 
ing in  careful  preparation  for  the  strain  upon  it,  then 
rifled  or  unrifled,  it  would  have  burst  at  the  first  dis- 
charge. Power  is  the  popular  criterion.  And  it  is 
recited  as  a  stunning  fact,  that  "he  who  wielded  our 
government  with  the  strongest  hand,  is  pronounced 
by  his  biographer  to  have  been  the  most  ignorant 
man  in  the  world."  But  is  this  a  plea  for  ignorance? 
I  know  that  La  Place  was  accused  by  Napoleon  of 
always  searching  after  subtleties — that  his  ideas  were 
problems  and  that  he  carried  the  spirit  of  the  infi- 
nitesimal calculus  into  the  management  of  business. 
Yet  this  was  no  fault  of  the  calculus,but  only  of  its 
application.    I  know  that,  as  is  said  of  Sir  John  Hunter, 


25 

men  may  be  ignorant  of  the  dead  languages,  and  yet 
may  be  able  to  teach  those  who  sneer  at  their  ignor- 
ance that  which  they  never  knew  in  any  language  dead 
or  living.  But  is  that  an  argument  against  the  clas- 
sics in  education  ?  No  !  But  to-day  1:hat  learning  is 
sought  with  most  avidity  which  graduates  a  man  as  a 
railroad  president  or  bank  president  upon  the  fattest 
living.  And  not  the  rings  of  the  planets  are  studied 
half  so  much  as  the  municipal  or  state  rings  of  the 
contractor.  Where  are  the  college  graduates  to-day 
in  the  foremost  ranks  of  learning  pushing  forward 
literary  enterprises,controlling  our  public  schools,  and 
guarding  all  our  educational  interests  ?  Alas  !  "  One 
to  his  farm,  another  to  his  merchandise."  I  have  lately 
seen  it  alleged  that  for  the  last  twenty  years  no  grad- 
uate of  our  American  colleges  has  risen  to  fame  as 
an  orator,  a  poet,  a  statesman,  or  an  historian,  or  in 
either  of  the  learned  professions.  And  even  if  this 
be  so,  why  is  it  except  that  the  public  mind  has  so 
set  itself  to  the  new  methods  as  to  turn  aside  the 
course  of  popular  education  from  the  ideal  to  the 
practical,  and  to  merge  it  in  business  affairs.  I  see 
it  stated  that  the  greatest  warfare  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  is  the  industrial  warfare  —  the  struggle 
between  the  great  nations  for  supremacy  in  the 
various  industries.  And  out  of  this  legitimate  strife 
come  the  great  World's  Fairs  of  Sydenham,  Paris, 


26 

Vienna,  and  the  Centennial  of  Philadelphia.  And  out 
of  such  a  want  come  the  Cornell  and  Michigan  Uni- 
versities. Plainly  enough  the  industries  of  the 
country  claim  to  be  developed.  There  is  a  training 
that  is  adapted  to  this.  Let  it  go  forward.  Let 
wealth  and  talent  be  applied  in  this  direction  also. 
Let  the  masses  enjoy  the  freest,  fullest  benefit  of 
such  a  practical  education  for  pursuing  their  chosen 
specialties.  But  give  us  the  old  college,  which  should 
not  be  superseded,  but  which  may  be  enriched  and 
enlarged  in  its  appliances  and  its  apparatus,  so  as 
to  become  an  university  only  more  universal  than 
hitherto. 

The  National  Education  applies  itself  to  the  indus- 
trial and  mechanic  arts  and  to  the  natural  sciences, 
as  being  the  kind  of  culture  which  the  nation  needs, 
for  the  development  of  her  material  resources.  And 
that  branch  of  learning  is  emphasized  which  best 
enables  the  man  to  make  profitable  adventures,  and 
to  turn  his  industries  to  most  direct  and  valuable 
account.  What  wonder  that  men  become  impatient 
of  the  old  routine,  when  it  seems  chiefly  useful  for 
a  well  rounded  and  symmetrical  culture  of  the  whole 
man,  and  pays,  not  in  cash,  but  only  in  credit.  Or 
what  wonder  that  the  time  is  counted  lost  for  business 
which  is  spent  in  college,  because  it  does  not  directly 
tell   upon   a    man's   trade   and   profits  ?     When  the 


27 

School  of  Design  turns  out  a  draughtsman  whose 
salary  in  a  silverware  establishment,  for  patterns  and 
artistic  devices,  is  equal  to  that  of  the  governor  of 
New  York,  what  wonder  that  this  becomes  the  "liberal 
education  "  in  the  accepted  sense,  and  that  such  call- 
ings take  the  place  of  the  learned  professions  ? 
Profit  is  good.  Utility  is  good.  To  make  two  blades 
of  grass  grow  where  only  one  grew  before — to  pro- 
duce sixty  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre — to  know  the 
composition  of  soils  so  as  to  raise  the  largest  crops — 
these  are  valuable  acquirements,  and  they  have  a 
place  in  the  culture  of  the  nation.  But  the  college 
course  is  not  superseded  by  these,  nor  is  this  agri- 
cultural training  incompatible  with  the  old  curriculum. 

Before  the  Advent  it  was  given  to  men  to  solve 
the  highest  problems  of  truth  by  worldly  wisdom 
put  to  the  utmost  tests.  The  trial  was  a  conspicuous 
failure.  The  world,  by  wisdom,  instead  of  attaining 
to  knowledofe  of  highest  truth,  attained  to  ionorance 
of  it.  In  the  midst  of  all  the  mental  illumination  of 
the  Porch  and  the  Academy,  the  altar  at  Athens  had 
on  it  the  tantalizing  inscription,  Ayvwaza)  Oeoj. 

Since  the  Advent,  it  is  left  to  the  race  to  solve 
the  same  grand  universal  problem  by  the  appliances 
of  worldly  power — to  find  out  what  the  utmost  achieve- 
ments of  physical  forces  can  do  in  the  steam  and  the 
lightning,  in  the  mine  and  the  factory  and  the  labo- 


28 

ratory  ;  to  gather  up  all  material  resources  and  to 
find  out  what  the  power  of  labor  can  do,  and  the 
power  of  trade,  and  the  power  of  wealth,  and  the 
power  of  armies,  and  the  power  of  governments — 
what  is  the  power  of  the  masses,  and  the  power  of 
crafts,  and  the  power  of  councils,  and  the  power  of 
diplomacies  and  courts,  and  cabinets,  to  solve  the 
great  world  problem.  This  is  the  operation  that  is 
now  going  on.  Here  is  the  huge  system  that  exalts 
material  resources  as  the  sphere  for  the  highest 
development  of  mankind  and  which  calls  forth  the 
sublimest  energy  of  men  in  the  race  for  perishable 
wealth.  The  mind  is  surcharged  with  material  aims 
and  schemes,  until  what  wonder  if  the  mind  itself 
becomes  materialized,  and  if  it  seems  to  the  average 
man  that  matter  is  mind,  or  mind  is  matter,  no  matter 
which,  and  that  there  is  nothing-  hicrher  to  be  eained 
than  mammon.  Here  and  there  a  High  Priest  of 
learning  discards  the  gilded  prize,  and  like  the  great 
Agassiz,  says,  "  I  have  no  time  to  make  money." 
Yet  this  very  word  from  such  lips  is  an  imperial 
summons,  to  which  men  of  money  respond.  And 
the  wand  of  such  a  Masfician  turns  even  the  stones 
into  gold  for  his  freest  service. 

But  the  tendency  of  speculative  thought  which 
we  have  indicated,  works  itself  out  in  the  severely 
practical    direction.     The   applied  sciences  become 


29 

the  attractive  field  of  study  with  many,  as  appHed 
for  gain.  The  "  Hberal  education  "  is  that  which 
commands  the  most  hberal  pay.  The  classics 
as  they  serve  mainly  to  discipline  the  mind,  are  com- 
ing to  be  disparaged,  as  having  no  practical  use 
beyond  the  reading  of  a  druggist's  label  or  a  physi- 
cian's recipe.  The  learned  professions  come  to  be 
considered  chiefly  in  the  light  of  their  productive- 
ness in  money.  And  a  man's  works  forsooth,  are 
not  any  more  his  volumes  as  an  author.  They  are 
his  factories,  as  a  proprietor  and  producer — his  cotton 
works,  or  iron  works.  And  so  also  what  a  man  is 
zvorth  is  not  his  moral  value,  but  his  estimated  accu- 
mulation in  dollars  and  cents.  And  a  man's  securi- 
ties, so  called,  are  the  instruments  by  which,  not  him- 
self is  secured  at  all,  but  only  his  revenue.  And  so 
our  very  vocabulary  bears  the  traces  of  the  miscon- 
ceit.  But  the  highest  knowledge  is  the  knowledge 
of  Him  in  whom  all  truth  culminates — whose  Son  is 
King  of  truth,  and  the  Truth  itself,  and  who  rallies 
to  His  side  all  those  who  are  of  the  truth  and  who 
therefore  respond  to  His  voice.  Intellect,  alone,  can- 
not rule  the  world.  Even  in  this  presence  of  the 
learned,  and  on  this  height  of  learning,  I  may  say  it 
and  challenge  contradiction.  The  mere  intellect 
may  be  so  debauched  by  a  degraded  materialism  as 
to  sink  its  possessor  in  the  deepest  mire  of  the 
streets. 


Scripture  and  history  both  reverse  the  world's 
judgment  in  making  mental  culture  wholly  incom- 
mensurate in  importance  wit'.i  spiritual  growth. 
Even  Goethe,  the  High  Priest  of  culture,  said  he 
never  had  a  happy  day  in  all  his  life.  But  the  world 
is  crazed  to-day  with  the  greed  of  gain.  Financial 
problems  are  the  prime  questions  of  state.  And  the 
experiment  will  be  made,  however  desperately,  by 
the  age  in  which  we  live,  to  prove  what  the  world  by 
power  can  attain  towards  the  ulcimate  and  perfect 
good. 

Power  of  industry,  and  power  of  machinery — 
power  of  combinations — power  of  the  pen,  and  of 
the  sword — power  of  the  press,  and  of  the  purse — 
it  will  all  be  tried,  to  solve  the  world's  chief  prob- 
lems by  worldly  power.  The  higher  learning  mav  for 
the  time  be  disparaged  and  debased  by  this  rush 
after  wealth.  The  great  teachers  in  our  colleges  and 
universities  may  go  begging,  as  offering  no  wares 
that  will  find  ready  market,  and  the  ministers  of 
religion  may  be  turned  out  to  starve  as  having  noth- 
ing for  the  multitude  that  will  command  a  price. 
But  this  experiment  of  power  will  be  another  failure. 
And  it  will  be  written,  after  the  centuries  of  striving 
and  of  drudging  for  wealth,  like  as  it  was  written  at 
the  Advent — "  The  world  by  power  knew  not  God." 


3t 

In  1813,  only  a  little  more  than  three  score  yea^s 
ago,  there  occurred  a  pair  of  events  most  truly  typi- 
cal. Robert  Fulton  was  applying  steam  to  the  first 
ferry  boat  on  the  Hudson  to  connect  the  metropolis 
with  what  is  now  the  sister  city  of  Brooklyn.  And. 
at  the  same  time,  in  Massachusetts,  men  were  laying 
holy  hands  upon  the  first  American  missionaries  to 
the  heathen.  What  the  material  force  has  achieved 
in  these  three  score  years,  binding  the  continents 
together,  making  the  ocean  passages  great  ferries 
across — revolutionizing  industries,  stimulating  com- 
merce, and  bringing  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  our 
feet,  the  highest  arithmetic  cannot  calculate.  What 
that  simple,  single  power  of  the  steam  engine  has 
added  to  the  world's  forces  and  resources  in  this 
period  no  man  can  compute.  Yet  no  steamer  nor 
rail  car  has  ever  carried  a  man  to  Heaven. 

But  calculate,  if  you  can,  what  has  been  accom- 
plished in  the  same  interval  by  the  spiritual  forces 
which  the  other  agency  has  set  in  operation.  Nations 
lifted  up  from  the  debasement  of  barbarism  and  put 
forward  on  a  grand  career  of  christian  civilization, 
and  the  moral  face  of  entire  communities  wholly 
changed.  These  are  values  not  to  be  commuted  by 
figures,  not  quoted  on  the  exchange  lists,  nor  sold  in 
the  markets. 


But  if  the  Cosmos  is  only  "  a  set  of  ponderous 
stamps  and"  hammers  and  jagged  iron  wheels,  where 
man,  as  a  helpless  and  defenceless  creature,  is  liable 
to  be  crushed  to  powder  by  a  sudden,  senseless 
whirl  of  the  machinery" — if,  as  Parton  has  it,  "  our 
race  is  tossed  about  on  this  round  ball  of  earth, 
naked  and  shelterless,  and  sent  shivering  through 
space — ivhy  we  don't  know,  and  whence  we  don't 
know,  and  ivJiither  we  don't  know," — then  what  is 
Science  but  a  curious  and  bootless  search  into  the 
massive  mechanism  that  ogives  one  no  answer  to  his 
queries,  but  whirls  him  into  dust  while  he  is  study- 
ing its  parts  ?  This  is  stark  heathenism  back  again 
— where  man  is  destined  to  be 

— ''  Seal'cl  amid  the  iron  hills, 
To  be  imprisoii'd  in  the  viewless  winds, 
And  blown  with  reckless  violence  about 
The  pendent  world." 

Or  if,  as  certain  modern  apostles  ot  science  will 
have  it,  the  whole  domain  of  spiritual  truth  is 
unknown  to  them — the  unspeakable  riches  of  that 
realm  of  thought  which  includes  all  supersensual 
existence  and  essence, — then  we  must  accept  their 
confession  of  ignorance.  But  they  know  no  hope 
for  mankind,  and  they  rob  the  world  of  its  only  con- 
solation. 

If  man  is  proved  to  be  a  wondrous  mechanism — 
then  surely  the  more  mechanism,  the  more  mechanic — 


33 

the  more  machine,  the  more  machinist.  And  this  con- 
scious meclianism — which  is  not  a  mere  puppet,  how- 
eA'^er  mechanically  the  arterial  and  nervous  systems 
may  act — supposes  a  Supreme  Personality,  of  mind 
and  will,  by  whom  it  is  produced  and  to  whom  it  is 
responsible. 

But,  Gentlemen,  we  know  of  what  is  in  the  future, 
as  statesmen  and  savans  do  not  know,  and  cannot 
tell.  We  know  of  what  is  the  rising  star  of  empire, 
and  of  who  is  the  comings  Man  and  the  comin^  Kingr. 
We  know  of  an  eclipse  in  which  the  sun  will  go  out 
in  darkness;  of  a  transit  in  which  the  heavens  them- 
selves shall  pass  away.  And  men  of  all  nations  and 
tongues  are  watching  with  instruments  which  the 
ages  have  well  proved  in  the  hands  of  the  great  and 
the  good,  according  to  the  highest  science.  Mean- 
while we  hail  all  scientific  discoveries  and  appliances. 
And  a  true  science  with  all  her  train,  will  vet  come 
up,  like  the  Magi,  with  her  offerings  of  gold  and 
incense  together — and  will  pay  devout  homage  to 
Him  who  is  no  longer,  in  the  cradle,  but  on  the 
throne,  the  King  and  Head  of  our  Humanity. 


i 


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